Introducing The pMCD!

The "pMCD", a Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross Disc frame and fork.

I think it's been seven years ago now that I got my first Black Mountain Cycles Monster Cross frame and fork. I chose it over some other choices at the time because it was the closest thing I could find to what I thought a gravel bike should be. Turns out that it did that job pretty well. So well that many other Monster Cross bikes were hitting the gravel roads with Black Mountain Cycles livery on the down tube. You know, I don't think Mike Varley of BMC, or anyone, saw that coming!

Now fast forward seven years and here I have received my second Black Mountain Cycles frame and fork. The main difference here is that this bike will have disc brakes and through axles. There are some other subtle changes, which I will get around to sharing as well. Some now, some later.

Mike Varley had hinted for years that a disc version might become available. You never know with smaller brands if hinted at plans will ever come true, so since this one has, I wanted to say, "Thanks Mike!" I know these projects are never easy, so I appreciate this.

Mike actually had e-mailed me about Trans Iowa prizing earlier this year, (BMC sponsored T.I.v14 with a frame/fork for the "Grittiest Ride" prize), and during those discussions at some point he e-mailed to let me know pink was a color for the new MCD frame/forks which were about to be announced for sale. I put my name in the line for a pink one then and there.

The fork is all new and features rack & fender mounts

The color pink for a bicycle doesn't seem like a good thing upon first thought, but after seeing a few pink bicycles and especially after seeing Nick Legan's pink BMC Monster Cross at the Dirty Kanza a few years ago, I decided I had to have a pink bicycle someday. I knew I was going to snag a disc Monster Cross whenever Mike decided to release one, and so the combination of pink and disc was a no-brainer.

The frame and fork arrived a day early even! So, I had some time to take a few beauty shots and then it was down into the Lab for the building process. No.........it isn't done yet. I had a couple of parts coming in today that were needed first, but in a surprise, I found out my build is taking a turn from original plans. Stay tuned for that twist.........

That means that I likely won't have this built until this weekend. Maybe early next week. There already have been a few changes to the original plan, even without the aforementioned "plot twist". In searching around for the bars and the Redshift Sports Shock Stop stem I was planning on putting on here, I found that my Ultegra 11spd levers were already mounted to the bars. Hmm........I thought I sent them away on a sale or used them on something, or.... Oh well! Here they were, all ready to cable up, so why not! Actually, those levers, the TRP Spyre brakes, the front derailleur, and the rear derailleur were off my Tamland originally.

Then I found out my 32mm CroMag purple anodized seat collar needed to be a 30mm one. Doh! So, I will be using the black one that came with the bike for now. I'll have to source a new purple collar later. There is one other purple bit to consider, but that should be here now and I'll have an update next week where I will tell you about that and the news I got today.

So, until then this will be on hold and I will be doing some minor stuff like mounting tires and what not until these new things come to pass. Stay tuned.......